Cafe
Serenity
Jacqueline
Paige
Release date February 15
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Book Description:
When Paranormal meets Normal, the
last thing you’ll find is Serenity.
Something in Riverside is
attacking those connected to Café Serenity, one of the local hangouts. The not-quite human owner and her misfit band
of anything but human friends and employees band together with the police to solve
the mystery.
Simple task: just work with or
around the Paranormal council of Elders, discover unknown soul mates, protect
each other, and do it all without arising the suspicion or notice of the normal
in town.
Just another day at Café
Serenity.
EXCERPT:
Darien set the
drink in front of Berk and then leaned on the bar.
Berk took a
drink of the pink concoction and grinned before looking around at the others.
“So,” his gaze moved over each one of the nine men present, “it’s just the
males at this middle of the night meeting?” He smirked. “Not that I’m
complaining.”
Darien tipped
his beer bottle toward him and then took a sip. “It wouldn’t be a meeting if
all the women were here.”
“No, it would be
a party.” Baker added with a grin.
Kyran tasted the
drink in front of him carefully, like he was unsure if he should be drinking
it. “Not bad. What is it again?”
Darien saw the
look pass between Attis and Pascal. He knew the look and felt a twinge of pain
for the unsuspecting detective.
Pascal grabbed
several shot glasses and placed them on the bar. “It’s a python,” He picked up
a bottle of tequila and started to pour it, “patent pending.”
Shrugging, Kyran
drank some more of it. “It’s good.”
Darien looked
away when the human glanced at him. “Before we get into more of the libations,
I’d like to brain storm and see if we can come up with a list of possible
suspects that might have something against Serenity or Remi.”
Finn downed his
tequila and washed it down with a mouthful of blood. “See I don’t get that
anyone could have a thing against Remi.” He shrugged. “She’s…”
“The most
brilliant…” Boden paused and studied his empty shot glass.
Baker winced as
he swallowed his drink. “Graceful,” he croaked.
Darien watched
Pascal set another drink in front of Kyran. He looked at the glass the vampire
pushed toward him and downed the rest of his previous drink in one gulp,
placing it in the hand waiting for it. Raising an eyebrow at Pascal, Darien
tried not to smirk and the nonchalant expression on the scheming vamps face.
He’d be pouring the detective in a cab later, Darien decided.
“Remi’s the most
fucking understanding person I know.” Emery added in a strained voice.
Bates pointed at
him, “And you’d know,” he blinked a few times. “You tried to fucking kill her
you supreme asshat and she forgave you and then adopted your sorry ass.”
Choking on
another shot, Kyran looked at Emery with his eyes wide. “You did what?”
Tipping his beer
bottle toward the startled normal, Emery took a long drink and then nodded.
“When I was turned, I was left on my own to figure out what the fuck I was.” He
shook his head quickly. “I didn’t even know about paras,” he waved a hand
motioning to the others sitting along the bar, “never mind I’d need to drink
blood to survive.” He chortled softly and looked at the bottle in his hand. “I
spent three nights dragging my ass around from one abandoned dive to the next,
puking my guts out every time I tried to eat.” He glanced at Attis and Pascal,
who Darien noted, had a look of understanding on their faces. Leaning forward
he stared down the bar at Kyran, “And then this tall sexy chick walks by,” he
waved a hand around, “I think this was the fourth night of the new me.” Shaking
his head, he briefly made eye contact with Darien and looked away quickly. “I
remember thinking if I wasn’t dying,” he grinned, “because let’s face it I
couldn’t even find a fucking pulse in my own body and thought I was, well,
dead.” He snorted. “Who knew?” A serious look appeared on his face. “So I see
this woman and briefly thought if I wasn’t dying I’d jump that.” He sighed.
“Then like a possessed man I did.” Eyes wide he looked at Darien. “I was just
going to ask her for a buck or two so I could try some juice or something and
the next thing I know I can smell her blood.” He cleared his throat and glanced
at Attis. “She smells like fucking paradise and my favorite meal all in one…”
He stops talking and picks at the label on the bottle in his hand.
Darien knew he
was reliving it. The curse of a vampire, as far as he was concerned, wasn’t
that they couldn’t go in light and lived on blood, it was that they felt
intense emotions over and over again. Forever.
“So you bit
her?” Kyran asked, his voice slightly slurred.
Emery opened his
hands and then clapped them together and leaned on the bar. “Yeah, I lost it
and bit her and it was…” he waved his hand around searching for the word.
“Tasty.” Finn
added with a nod.
Darien turned
and glared at him.
“Sorry.” A
serious look covered his face.
“What happened?”
Kyran accepted the next drink from Pascal without taking his eyes of Emery.
Watching him
take a drink, Darien hid his smile behind the beer bottle against his lips and
looked back at Remi’s son.
Blowing out a
breath, Emery leaned both elbows onto the bar. “I’m thinking I’m going to drain
this poor woman, but can’t stop myself and the next thing I know there’s this
enormous guy flashing fangs at me and pinning me against the wall.” He motioned
to Attis and continued. “I’m scared shitless staring into the face of this red
eyed seething man while another larger than life guy is holding Remi and
licking her throat to close where I bit her.”
Kyran accepted
the shot of tequila from Pascal and downed it. “So, how did you get from that
to being her precious son?”
Emery lifted a
hand, a confused look on his face.
“I’m ready to
rip his throat out,” Attis said in a lethal tone, “when Remi comes too and
tells me not to hurt him because he’s scared.” He glanced from Emery to Darien,
“to bring him home with us.”
Darien shook his
head, still remembering how conflicted he was when they did just that. Setting
the empty bottle on the back counter, he moved down to the fridge and grabbed
several more. “I’ll never forget you walking in carrying her,” he glanced at
Pascal, “it was a week before my heart rate settled down.”
Pascal laughed.
“At least you got to look after Remi,” he jerked a thumb toward Emery. “We got
left with junior here.”
“Hey, I didn’t
know.” Emery added with a grin, accepting the bottle Darien handed him.
Kyran nodded his
thanks to Pascal as he slid him another python. “I’m just gonna forget I heard
any of that.” He waved a hand around and then pointed at Darien. “Now you.” He
took a sip of his drink. “Remi’s your mate?”
Darien leaned
back and crossed his arms, knowing he was about to be harassed by all of them
in a few moments time.
“So why the
fuck,” Kyran paused in a dramatic way, “haven’t you told her?”
Several sounds
of agreement sounded. Taking a deep breath, he looked down at the floor. “It’s
complicated.”
Finn leaned
forward so Darien couldn’t help but see him. “It was complicated, now he’s just
procrastinating.”
Darien stood
there and kept his eyes on the floor, someday they would all get tired of
nagging him.
“Complicated,
whatever.” Kyran muttered. “Have you seen Remi?” Darien looked up at him, his
eyes were wide and glazed over. “Seriously, aside from the fact she’s smoking
hot, she has a brain and a personality.” He finished his drink and pushed the
glass toward Pascal with a nod for another. “Don’t even tell me what the hell
she was doing with a dickwad like Peterson, that’s just wrong.” He slumped
against the bar and squinted at Darien. “What the fuck are you waiting for?”
Darien felt his
wolf stir, he knew Remi was the type of woman every man looked at, but hearing
it wasn’t always a safe thing.
“New topic.”
Berk said loudly. “Anything. Now.” He stood up and tapped his hands on the bar
top. “Why are we here?”
Finn moved
around to behind the bar, putting three vampires between Darien and the
detective that shouldn’t be talking about his mate.
My Review
Is coming soon! Sorry I know, I'm behind on my reading just because life has been full on madness lately! But I'll show you some goodies soon :)
About
the Author:
Jacqueline Paige lives in Ontario
in a small town that's part of the popular Georgian Triangle area. No one has ever heard of Stayner, so she
usually tells people she lives near Collingwood and no, she doesn't ski at Blue
Mountain or at all, in fact she's not even fond of snow.
She began her writing career in
2006 and since her first published works in 2009 she hasn't stopped. Jacqueline describes her writing as all
things paranormal, which she has proven is her niche with stories of witches,
ghosts, physics and shifters now on the shelves.
When Jacqueline isn't working at
her reality job or lost in her writing she spends time with her five children,
most of whom are finally able to look after her instead of the other way
around. Together they do random road
trips, that usually end up with them lost,
shopping trips where they push every button in the toy aisle, hiking
when there's enough time to escape and bizarre things like creating new daring
recipes in the kitchen. She's a grandmother to five (so far) and looks forward
to corrupting many more in the years to come.
@JacqPaige
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